After 11 years as an Infantryman...I'm now a cable guy with an opinion.

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Walz on VA bonuses

Our friends at Bluestem Prairie, Minnesota Campaign Report and I Don't Hate America all have posts up about Congressman Walz' reaction to large VA bonuses in the face of large budget shortfalls and even larger backlogs in patient care.

I am appalled that a young soldier, fighting for an entire year in Iraq, still could not make $33,000 a year, much less as a bonus!

We're still feeling the effects of that incompetence, that cronyism, that greed,and those hollow promises. Luckily we have a Democratic Congress that canexercise oversight on these issues for the sake of our veterans and our entirecountry, and not just those who can afford to keep lobbyists on staff in D.C.

Exactly! For the past 4 years we have heard this mantra that only Republicans support our troops.

Who isn't profiting off of this war? Seriously!

We have the defense industry that is fielding new weapons and different versions of ammunition, costing the tax payers billions.

No bid contracts for construction projects, which according to the 60 Minutes report, 7 of 8 they could inspect have failed.

We have the private defense contractors who provide security and perform other missions in Iraq, making 5-10 times more than an enlisted soldier could get paid to do the same military mission.

Iraq is the testing ground for the neo-con military industrial complex. While the vast majority of Americans support a speedy withdrawal from Iraq, these groups that profit heavily coerce Congress to stay.

Greed...

And to answer the question who isn't profiting, it's the soldier and their families. Go read the military blogs linked to the left of this text. The young soldier at Army of Dude was extended for another few months in Iraq. The soldier at Burst Asunder was involuntarily extended for an entire tour in Iraq, which will now be 15 months!

"I have lost confidence in Secretary Nicholson and a number of the VA's seniorofficials," said Walz. "I intend to give the Secretary a chance to explainhimself to the Veterans' Affairs Committee this week. If the Secretarycannot prove that those bonuses were based on significant documented successesthat I am currently unaware of, then Secretary Nicholson should step down."

Ollie Ox points out Nicholson's history as the head of the Republican National Committee, raising money for Bush. We would indeed like to see someone qualified to oversee a large bureaucracy, versus someone who can raise lots of money for Republicans.

Length of backlog veterans face when filing disability claims with the VeteransAffairs Department — “about six times longer than is typical in the privatesector.” VA records show that “pending disability claims with the VA take anaverage of 177 days to process,” but “for some, the wait time is almost a year".